Oswald Mosley - Briton, Fascist, European

Why should they be? The Europeans are all closely related, yet they have fought each other far too long. The escapists’ answer that things would be more peaceful if we were all the same is no more valid than the statement that things would be more peaceful if we were all dead. It is the answer of the death wish which is the chief characteristic of contemporary decadence. It is always possible to solve the problems of life by escaping from life.

Question : Are you against mixed marriages; if so why?

Answer: Certainly I am against mixed marriages, because I am proud of my own race and want to preserve it. We British are, of course, the product of a mixture of peoples, but always peoples very close to the original stock; never what the scientists call a “wide outbreeding” or a “real crossing”. When I express opposition to mixed marriages I am not referring to marriages within Europe but to marriages with quite different peoples. Not only do I think this process bad for us, but also bad in the wider interests of mankind as a whole. The plan of nature for thousands of years has been to develop different races with character of their own, and on the whole the plan has succeeded very well. All these diverse threads of humanity make up a brightly coloured scheme in this beautiful, interesting and fascinating world of endless future possibilities. Apart from not wanting the disappearance of my own race, I do not want all races eventually amalgamated in one dull, grey mess. And I notice that many people who desire this end are already in their own personalities precisely in that condition of grey mess. They appear to hate all life, vitality and brilliance in human existence, and want to reduce everything to their own sad condition. Let us rather all develop along our own lines and in our own civilisations, certainly respecting and helping one another but not mixing together in a way that would destroy identity and character.

Question : Would you seek to forbid mixed marriages by law?

Answer: No. It would be enough to let our people know the facts. Very few of them want mixed marriages. All the propaganda in favour of such ideas has had very little effect; the healthy instinct of the mass of the people is too strong. Tell our people the truth and revive the old pride in being British. That would be enough.
After all, for generations our people ran the biggest Empire of mixed races known to history. It never occurred to them to go in for mixed marriages except in isolated instances, until war-time propaganda (for obvious reasons) began to suggest that all people were the same and that any idea to the contrary was wicked.

To desire mixed marriages is not normal to the British. Nor is it natural among the Negroes. The leaders of the great negro communities like the Zulus are very averse to mixed marriages. They are proud of their stock and want to preserve it.

There are, of course, exceptions, but in general it is only the trash on each side which wants to mix. It is against nature. Healthy strains do not desire it, only the exhausted who seek some form of biological renewal-in this case by the wrong method, because the out-cross is too extreme.
Our Movement will awake a new social conscience. Also it will end the present compulsory mixing of the people by government policy which permits and even encourages a flood of coloured immigrants into areas already overcrowded by reason of the long neglect of housing. This will meet the problem without any forbidding of mixed marriages by law. The more healthy instincts we can awake in our people and the less we repress by law, the better.

Question : Can racial differences never be overcome intellectually and socially?

Answer: Yes, of course they can at a certain level of intelligence, education and character. The first gulf which is overcome by intelligence is what was called class. It ceases to exist already at a certain level of intelligence. The next is the gulf of generation. That, too, is overcome at a certain level of intelligence or of character. The third and last gulf to overcome-the hardest task-is the gulf between races. Of course, it is surmounted already by men of very great intelligence. For instance, few of the world’s leading scientists in discussing their own subjects, would be preoccupied by the thought that they came from different races. But having an intellectual discussion together is a very different thing from marrying each other. Also very few people have reached the level of such intellectual intercourse, and it will be at least some time before they do. If you now try to mix those who have very different ways and standards of life, you make trouble. You make such a row that you postpone the day when more people of different races will be able to get on well together on the social and intellectual planes.

Question : Would you describe yourselves as a racialist party?

Answer: No, because racialism is usually taken to mean that one race dominates others, and we believe that all races should be free to develop their own civilisations. We believe in the principle: “Live and let live”. We believe in preserving our own race, but not in persecuting other races. We shall preserve our own race by two methods: (a) by preventing immigration to this country which creates overcrowding and other social problems, (b) By publishing the facts which science reveals: that races have different characteristics, and that the mixture of extremes is detrimental to both races involved. If our people are given this knowledge, no laws on the subject will be necessary.

Question : Then you did not at any time agree with Nazi racial policies?

Answer: No, I did not agree and have expressed myself clearly on the point in public on a number of occasions. Our policy in this respect as in others was very different. The reason was that our problem and our aim were both different. Our problem was to conduct a great Empire consisting of many different races, and our aim was to hold it together and develop it. The Nazi Party’s declared policy was to unite all the German peoples in Europe, and their aim was to bring them together in an area adequate to their economic survival. Our policy on racial matters was therefore naturally different from their policy. And now that the war has broken up the Empire and made the conduct of what remains in the old way impossible, we do not change the British tradition in racial policy. We would discourage mixed marriages, but would not repress them by law. We can trust our people under the right guidance not to make them.
Our British contribution should always be balance and sanity in such matters. There was an element of hysteria in the Nazi approach to these things, which ended in disaster. The racial theme was exaggerated and pushed to extremes. (I speak now of peace time, and not of war atrocities which I deal with in another answer). An exaggerated and hysterical view of facts which are true in themselves can lead to an inhuman situation in which things are done which frustrate the very idea it was desired to promote. It is right to be proud of your own race and to try to preserve it, but not to lose all sense of balance and proportion on the subject.

Question : Do you consider your attitude on racial matters to be more in line with British tradition than that of the other parties?

Answer: Yes, because the British tradition is calmly and firmly to preserve our own race in practice, without falling into hysteria on the subject under the influence of any extreme or unproven theories.

It is interesting to note that the most respected leader of the Conservative Party – Mr. Disraeli – came very near on the other side to believing the same principle as the Nazis. He wrote: “All is race; there is no other truth”. If my recollection is correct, you will find it in his book Tancred. He was, of course, a Jew whose family came from Sicily; a foreign import if ever there was one. Some Jews, like the Nazis, have always taken an exaggerated view of this matter. Race is important, but it is not everything. Such Jews are right – as we are right – to discourage mixed marriages and to try to preserve their own kind. But I would not go so far as Disraeli in saying that “all is race”, strongly as I am against a mixture of races. It is indeed curious that the most revered of all Conservative leaders – who gave them practically every idea they possess, and whose now obsolete principles are still printed on the back of their membership card – should have taken this view of the racial question. It is becoming tragically comical now that the Conservatives are so busy importing Negroes and similar far-away strains from all over the place into Britain and compulsorily mixing them with our people. Mixed-up kids, the Tories. They will certainly leave us with a lot of problems to straighten out.